The present invention relates to cleaning fiber, and more particularly to removing foreign matter from fiber in preparation for further processing of the fiber.
It is important that fiber be clean when submitted to a fiber mill for processing into a yarn or other fiber product. Any foreign matter entangled in the fiber in the initial stages of processing or spinning will likely result in defects in the end product and/or cause problems with the complicated fiber processing machinery, potentially damaging the machinery. For example, alpaca fiber may contain heavy tags (manure and sweat locks), seeds, thistles, burrs and other undesirable matter. Removal of these items is essential before processing the fiber. Often, this is accomplished by a tedious and laborious skirting process whereby the foreign matter is manually picked from the fiber. The manual cleaning of the fiber is, however, error prone wherein particles that are deeply entangled in the fiber or too small to be noticed are often overlooked, resulting in the aforementioned defects in the end product and/or problems with the processing machinery.
For the aforementioned reasons, animal fiber such as sheep wool, angora goat hair (mohair), rabbit hair (angora), llama, alpaca, dog hair, and other exotic animals are frequently cleaned in a rotating tumbler which allows the foreign matter to fall out of the fiber through a wire screen. The openings in the screen are sized so that the fiber remains in the tumbler while the foreign matter is allowed to escape through the screen. Sizing of the grid comprising the screen is, however, problematic. For example, Huacaya alpacas are fluffy, somewhat like teddy bears, and Suri alpacas have long shiny locks of very soft, slightly curly hair. Consequently, a 1 inch square grid size is an efficacious size for tumble cleaning the fiber of a Huacaya alpaca, or other fluffy fiber, because it allows larger pieces of foreign matter or undesirably small clumps of fiber (second cuts) to pass through while retaining the desirable fiber. However, the same 1 inch grid size will allow the shiny, and somewhat slippery locks of Suri fiber to pass through and escape with the foreign matter. Therefore, a smaller grid size such as, e.g., ½ inch is more suitable for tumble cleaning Suri fiber. However, current fiber tumblers make no provision for changing grid sizes to suit a particular type of fiber. Fiber tumblers are usually made of a large hexagonal, cylindrical, or other shape fixed structure having a wire grid permanently fastened to the structure. Consequently, changing grid sizes would be laborious and difficult, or would require at least a second tumbler, an expensive alternative.
There is thus a need for an improved method and apparatus facilitating efficacious cleaning of various types of fiber having different characteristics.